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MEDIA AGENDA INTO PUBLIC AGENDA IN CONTEXT OF UNEMPLOYMENT AS SOCIO-LEGAL ISSUE IN PAKISTAN: A FRAMING
ANALYSIS
1DR. FARRUKH NAZIR, 2DR. MUHAMMAD FAROOQ, 3DR. MUHAMMAD BILAL NAWAZ, 4MUHAMMAD ZAIN ZAMIR, 5DR. ZAHID YOUSAF, 6DR. MUHAMMAD BILAL BHATTI
1Visiting Faculty International Islamic University, Islamabad f_farrukh@yahoo.com 2Visiting Faculty Department of Mass communication & Media Studies GIFT University, Gujranwala 3Assistant Professor Department of Mass Communication Lahore College for Women University, Lahore 4Lecturer
Department of Media & Communication Studies The Islamia University of Bahawalpur 5Professor
Centre for Media and Communication Studies University of Gujrat, Punjab zahid.yousaf@uog.edu.pk 6Lecturer Department of Mass Communication Mirpur University of Science & Technology (MUST) Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir bilal.bhatti@must.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
Media frames the socio-legal issues of the society and shape the public opinion. Unemployment can be considered as main factor resulting into social inequality, economic disparity, unequal education and rural and urban divide in a society. Brain drain has become the grave issue of Pakistan (Kousar, S. et al., 2020). The unemployment stands as major socio-legal issue behind this entire brain drain. The main tenacity of this study was to explore the "News Treatment of the Socio-legal Issue (Unemployment) and Shaping the Public Opinion. The objectives of the study were: (a) To analyze the media agenda as public opinion in context of social issue unemployment among the readers of newspaper Daily Jung. (b) To analyze the media agenda as public opinion in context of social issue unemployment among the readers of newspaper Daily Dawn. Researchers used mixed method design for the study. The qualitative content analysis as well as survey of the readers of the selected newspapers was taken to study their perception on the highlighted social issue. News items printed on the front and back pages regarding social issue unemployment of Daily Dawn and Daily Jang Lahore for the period of 1st January, 2015 to 31st December, 2015 were taken as sample. A survey from the sample of 300 readers of both newspapers from five metropolitan cities of Pakistan was selected through simple random sampling technique to study the public opinion on the same socio-legal issue. The findings revealed that Daily Jang newspaper gave maximum coverage than Dawn to the unemployment issue by the placement of its news. There was close association among media agenda and public opinion with respect to Daily Jung as well as Daily Dawn newspaper on the socio-legal issue of unemployment. There was found a close association between media agenda and public opinion. The study supported both the hypotheses regarding the readership of unemployment issue and its discussion as priority agenda with their fellows.
Keywords: Agenda Setting, News Framing, Qualitative Analysis, Public Opinion
INTRODUCTION
Press is making its effective role in society to change the public opinion through its messages. For this purpose, media groups and institutions have hired a number of persons to observe the events of society. The media has become a powerful tool to plans the policy of the country in global communication (Raza, et al .2012). Media educates the people and helps them to understand the preference of one issue on another (Scheufele, 1999). Mass media is most effective tool of awareness. It has innate character to change the minds of the people no matter what is the issue (Anholt, 2007). Coverage of any issue by the media and transmission of information about that, eventually effect the perceptions of audience (Kotler, 1971). Therefore, scholars believe that media have the ability to shape public opinion and influence public agenda (Andrews & Caren, 2010). Media especially the newspapers play central role in a community to understand that, what is happening around them (Christoph Rosenthal, 2014). Newspapers set their headlines, lead on front page, size and color of the headings to provide clues to their readers (McCombs, 2002). The researchers argued that media had played a vital role in creating actuality (Yousaf, et al, 2013). Journalist seeks our attention towards an exclusive story instantly. This could be a general or a more common problem (Gandy, & Li, 2005). This process is meant to form the public opinions and people are provided information of a particular issue which they are tending to take as reality. Media is believed to present a fair and objective image of any issue, however, the issue in question is taken objectively or not, people opinion is shaped (Russell G, 2013). Media coverage helps people to learn about the issues and indirectly to decide the importance what they should give to any issue (McCombs & Shaw, 1972).
News Treatment of Socio-legal Issues and Shaping the Public Opinion
The basic function of news reporters as well as organizations is to produce the news stories for the media organizations to which they are engaged for working. The news reports are the products of a journalist and their organizations. Schudson (2002) stated that news created a reality of state and economy which defined political economy. Becker & Vlad (2009) argued that state interests were covered by the media. Media men get material from Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, internet and their own sources. They select and shape the small information and make them in form of news stories. "It is the process of selecting, writing, cutting, positioning, scheduling, repeating and otherwise massaging information to become news" (Reese & Shoemaker, 2009). Daily Jang
It is the one among the pioneer newspapers and largest publication groups of Pakistan. Jang is "the most popular" Urdu newspaper of Pakistan and prominent among the "policy makers" in Pakistan (Bhat, 2015). The newspaper was started in Delhi in 1939 by the efforts of Mir Khalil ur Rehman. The sister publications of this house are "The News, Daily Awam, weekly Urdu magazine Akhbar-e-Jahan, English magazine MAG and Daily Waqt" with its center of publication at Lahore. Daily Dawn
Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English language newspaper. The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah launched the Dawn newspaper in 1940s. One of the country's three largest English-language dailies, Daily Dawn is on top. The newspapers is published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, Spider, an information technology magazine and Aurora, an advertising, marketing and media magazine. Problem Statement
Brain drain has become the grave issue of Pakistan (Kousar, S. et al., 2020). Migration of intellectuals and skilled population at a large scale posed significant impacts on the development and progress of a nation. The increasing rate of migration of teachers, engineers, doctors, technicians from Pakistan to the developed world may have serious economic, social and educational implications (Behlol, et al., 2020)a. Nearly .125 million well learned scholars migrated from Pakistan to developed countries during 2010- 2017 (Behlol, et al., 2020)b. Majority of educated adults (two third) strongly intends to migrate from Pakistan without any longing of coming back to the motherland (Gallop-Pakistan, 2000). The unemployment stands as major social issue behind this entire brain drain. This study focused on analyzing the play up of the variable
unemployment as media agenda to public agenda. The role of print media was investigated in this regard.
Significance of Study
This study will help the scholars and practitioners to understand how media plays its role as an agent of social change. How it highlights or pick up an issue of social importance, how it develops it into a developing story, how news feed is gathered into themes. Eventually convince the people that said issue is the most important in their social uplifting (Deep-house, 2000).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Socio-legal Issues
Hilgartner & Bost (1988) defined the term social issues as the problems and concerns those act as a hurdle in smooth functioning of the society and there is difference between the events occurring in society and the problems of society. The social issues negatively affect the functions of society but are the part of our daily lives (Ali, 2015). Kee & Hoong (2017) explained the social issues as the most published events by the media those took attention of the audience. The projection of issues and the frequency of coverage provide the dimension to think about the issue. Political and social dynamics of the issues are important in framing (Raza, 2013). Every individual in the society gives importance to some social issues with accordance to his/her own understanding and perception (Kleinman, & Lock, 1997). Gandy and Li (2005) explored the surrounding of issues by the writers about contrast and divergence triggers and the molding of occasion through which the common people know social issues. Unemployment
The unemployment rate in Pakistan is very high. There are very less institutions in Pakistan those give importance to the future of their students and consider what field they should choose as per the requirements of the society and human resource of the field (Qayyumm & Siddiqui, 2007). Unemployment is an important problem in the social sector that has a significant role in the economic situation of country. It is related to the development of economy with the allocation of human capital in terms of employment (Akram & Tufail, 2011). Weaver & Willnat (1992) examined the issue of unemployment in special regard to the coverage given by the media to analyze whether people considered the issue of unemployment and drug abuse as social problems or personal one as perceived through the depiction in media. The study concluded that interpersonal communication remained important to make an issue prominent as social or individual. Further, the study found that the media exposure over the issue has no role in prediction of the perceptions of people if the issue is personal or social. It matters that how much someone talks about the issue individually to someone. It was concluded that the role of interpersonal communication was the major element in building of any opinion. Winter& Rogers (1982) stated that "inflation, unemployment, national unity and aggregate" as the study found the power and scheduling of agenda-setting associations change with the issues of the individuals. The authors explained the important relations among the public and media agendas on the issues of singular and independent, whereas, the collective measurement proved the significant relationship. The authors further elaborated that the study of a number of issues found by measuring central tendency that might not conclude any of the personal issues. Furthermore, research has proved in contradiction as the most of the matters were treated in the collective. Asif (2013) elaborated that the reasons behind unemployment in Pakistan were unequal circulation of money, unsuitable use of external sources, insufficiency of resources and over populace, falling financial situations, political instability, low growth and so many. The situation would be controlled and policies are required to be revised (Asif, 2013). More than 2-million residents in Pakistan have migrated to different areas of the county for the sake of income and better living. They have their businesses and set-ups in the big cities. This situation has become a trend in the last 3 years (Aqil & Qadeer, 2014). The unemployment of so many people remained the major social problem that is to be taken on priority by the policy makers and administrators in the developing and underdeveloped states. Similarly, 34-million people around the globe have been moved to the other areas for the economic purpose after the difficult
RUSSIAN LAW JOURNAL Volume XI (2023) Issue 1
situations during the year 2007. The jobless youngsters have grown to 77.7 from 73.5 million during 2010 due to the worldwide crises (Cheema, 2014).
H1: There is a positive relationship between the readers of Daily Jang and discussion of the unemployment issue with their fellows.
H2: There is a positive relationship between the readers of Daily Dawn and discussion of the unemployment issue with their fellows.
METHODOLOGY
This section of the research has mentioned the methods and procedures taken out to get the scientific results. Survey as well as content analysis methods were adopted for data collection in current study. Research Design
The researcher has selected mix method research design for this study. The study applied qualitative content analysis for the content of media and the treatment given to the issues in perspective of "Agenda-Setting". The survey was administered having both the open-ended questions to get perception of the audience about the most important issues in their society and region and also close ended questions on the issues that are prominent in the society to check whether the unemployment is among the most important social issues or not (Iyengar, 1992). Sampling
The sampling was made for content analysis and survey research both owing to a mixed methods design.
Survey Research. Survey of newspapers readers has been done to the perception of the audience about the newspaper's role in forming the opinion over "unemployment" and associated features in the second portion of the current study by the author. The reliability of survey tool was found a = 0.78. Survey of 300 readers divided into 150 daily Dawn readers and 150 of Jang. The researchers physically visited the respondents to get the information with printed copies. The sample for the data collection belongs to Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar as it explains tendency of "the whole Country" being the capitals of provinces and the federal capital. The opinion of the respondents was collected through survey and then its results were compared with the slant of the newspapers treatment. This research has basically adopted simple random sampling technique to get a representative sample for the research. For this purpose, 1200 respondents were selected randomly as 240 from each city i.e. Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore and Karachi and the list was maintained. Among them, 60 from each city were selected by using random number table where every fourth person was selected with his/her preference to the two selected dailies to meet a convenient sample for the study.
Content Analysis. Pakistan has a number of national dailies that are issued from different cities and regions. Owing to the time and budget constraints, it was very difficult for the researcher to consider all the newspapers of the county and include them in the sample. So, the researcher selected one English and one Urdu newspaper; Daily Dawn and Daily Jang. The selected time period for the analysis was from "January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015" of the two papers. The national libraries were selected to be vested to find the newspapers of the selected duration. The researcher accesses the newspapers from "Jinnah Library, Trust Plaza Gujranwala" and "Punjab Public Library, Lahore". The required sample of the newspapers had been found from the libraries where the record was maintained. The researcher took unemployment in the research as one of the major social issues. The method of "content analysis" of media has been extensively used by researchers (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000).The technique is used to analyses the content in a systematic and objective way to measure the variables with a purpose (Kerlinger, 1986). The qualitative content analysis method was used to analyze the selected contents of newspapers Variables for Content Analysis The variables under study were:-
Defining the Issue: Unemployment
Unemployment Issue. People those are willing and able to work but unfortunate in getting it, they are unemployed. Some studies have found 6 million unemployed in Pakistan in 2030 (Akram &Tufail. 2011). The coding sheet for content analysis of the social issue: unemployment was formulated as followed: -
Issues Coding
Unemployment News stories published in Daily Jang and Daily Dawn that talk about Unemployment will fall in this category. News about government policies to control unemployment will include in this category. News about attempted to commit suicide due to unemployment /non-availability of job will fall in this type.
Coding Sheet
Date, content, total, favorable sentences, unfavorable sentences, neutral sentences were used for analyzing front and back pages content published on the selected issue and collection of the data from the same newspapers' treatment of the issue in terms of favorable, unfavorable and neutral sentences.
Measurement of the News Items (Length)
The length (space) donated for the stories regarding social problems addressed in the study have been analyzed in "centimeters per column". The usual fixed "width" of a column in the print media of Pakistan is "four centimeters". The pictures published with news items on the issues are measured too. More news published relating the issues on back as well as "front pages of the newspapers" and its other portions at internal pages, their "length" are also measured accordingly. The Slanting of the Issue
The way a particular issue is given in the paper is analyzed with relevance to being "favorable, unfavorable and neutral". It has been analyzed in "paragraphs" and "coding unit". The printed news items regarding the issues of the current study and slant was positioned as favorable, unfavorable and neural. The paragraphs of the news stories are considered as the coding unit of investigation and the slant is dignified according to the" Rules of Categorization". Positive for Government. The reports showing positive picture of govt. as above said issue is considered as favorable.
Negative for Government. News items showing negative picture of govt. as above said issue. Neutral. The news stories showing the same paragraphs in favor as well as unfavorable image are considered as natural. Equal paragraphs (favorable and unfavorable) or showing a neutral image. Framing of the Issue
The framing is a main element in "agenda setting" effects and that is in what way a "news story" is framed. The framing discusses the technique actions and problems prearranged particularly by media, its workers and public (Reese, 2001). The measurement was based on contextual terms to analyze the news in the papers. "The linguistic power of framing is aroused from its role to increase the saliency of some aspects of reality over others" (Cooper, & Althous, 2008). Framing of the social issue unemployment was studied as "Favorable", "unfavorable", & "neutral" with respect to government. The second phase of the study was established on survey that is the major part of the study. The study already explains in research methodology chapter that a sample of 300 readers of the Dawn and Jang newspapers with equal half. Frequency of the News
The researcher noted the frequency by counting published stories on "front and back pages of the papers". The number of reports printed on front & back pages of the newspapers is considered as frequency.
Placement of the New Story
The placement of the news story is also main element in agenda setting study and it means where the story is positioned. The Editors, broadcasters and newsroom officials have a big role in picking and presenting news stories as they have to shape the stories in different styles. The readers
acquire knowledge about the issue but also know the importance of the issue according to the position and measurement given by the media professionals (McCombs & Shaw, 1991). The importance of news about the issues was analyzed by the location of the news. According to the nature of research the study, news content has been divided as per their placement into four types. The importance of news about the issues was analyzed by the location of the news. According to the nature of research the study, news content has been divided as per their placement into four types. These are:-
I. FPUH: "front page upper half"
II. FPLH: "front page lower half"
III. BPUH: "back page upper half"
IV. BPLH: The "back page lower half"
FPUH. The news items printed on front page on its upper half portion were considered as placement (upper half).
FPLH. Reports printed on lower page part were considered as placement (lower half).
BPUH. The news reports printed on back page on its upper half part was considered as placement
lower half.
BPLH. Reports printed on lower page part were considered as placement (lower half). Unit of Content Analysis
In content analyses method, the content is considered the "coding unit". The said paragraphs were considered in position as favorable, unfavorable and neutral. Contextual Unit of Analysis
Total items are "contextual unit of analysis "for the research also framing is dignified at the origin. The "framing" is emphasized on the basis of contextual unit of analysis. Inter-coder Reliability
"Inter coder reliability tests" was applied for the reliability check. Inter coder reliability states to the equal of contract between coders who use the same tool to code the same content (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006). In the current study, inter coder reliability was determined using Holsti's (1968) "formula: Reliability =2M (N1+N2), where M is the number of coding decision that the two coders agreed on and N1 represents the first coder's decision and N2 represents the second coder's decisions". For this purpose, the services of one independent researcher were hired.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the first section of data, content analysis was examined by applying "chi-square contingency test" that was among the most used statistical tests to analyze the nominal data. Content Analysis
The examination about the both newspapers were interpreted and displayed separately in which it has been mentioned that there are a separate agenda setting of press and view of the audience over the matters according to this research. Reliability tests "intra coder" and "inter coder" have been applied for the reliability of the results. It has shown that results by the tests are recorded as "95% and 85% respectively".
Placement of News Items regarding Unemployment
It was further explored that Dawn has published 17.94% news about unemployment at its "upper half" of the "front page" and 20.52% at the "lower half" while, Jang gave 15.68% on the upper part of the front page and 19.60% on the lower. The analysis and count of the back page of Dawn has shown that it gave 25.64% and 35.90% on the upper and lower half respectively. Jang gave 33.34% on the upper half and 31.38% on the lower half of back page. The value of chi-square was found 0.6. The comparison of the news coverage has shown that Daily Jang newspaper provided more importance to unemployment than the Dawn. The more space was given at "lower half portion of front page" and "upper half portion of back page" in Jang and "back page lower half portion" in Dawn. Table.1
Table-1: Coverage of Dawn and Jang on Unemployment Issue as Placement of News
, Comparison Placement Total
FPUH FPLH BPUH BPLH df X2 P
Newspaper Dawn 7 8 10 14 39
17.94% 20.52°% 25.64% 35.90% dawn/jang 3 0.6 Ns
Jang 8 15.68% 10 19.60% 17 33.34% 16 31.38% 51
Total 15 18 27 30 90
Frequency of News Items regarding Unemployment
The results indicate that on the issue of unemployment has got published in 39 news stories on the selected pages during the selected time in Dawn and got published 51 times in Jang. Daily Jang has given more coverage to the issue and both newspapers have given the issue 5th rank in comparison to other issues. Table.2
Table-2: Frequency of News Stories Published in Daily Dawn and Jang
Issues of the Study Ranking of covered Ranking of covered
frequency of News Stories frequency of News Stories
Dawn Jang
Unemployment 39 51
Measurement of the News Items (Length)
Dawn has given 1495 "centimeters column" space to unemployment and Jang has given 1624 to the issue. Table. 3
Table-3: Measurement (Length) of News Stories Printed in Daily Dawn and Jang
The Study Issues Ranking with respect to space Ranking with respect to space
covered of News Stories (cm covered of News (cm per
per column) column)
Dawn Jang
Unemployment 1495 1624
Slant of Socio-legal Issue: Unemployment
The results indicate that Dawn published "2926 favorable news stories, 1784 unfavorable, and 968 neutral" and Jang published "1574 favorable of Government, 1290 unfavorable and 510 neutral". The results indicated the majority news in favor of the government. Table. 4 Table-4: Slant of the News Stories Published on Unemployment in Dawn and Jang Respectively
Issues of the Favorabl Unfavorabl Neutral Favorable Unfavorabl Neutral
Study e (%) e (%) (%) (%) e (%) (%)
Unemploymen 189 61(21.6) 32(11.3) 187(67.8) 60(21.7) 29( 10.5)
t (67.0)
The analysis shows that the value of "chi-square" is 0.1 that is lesser than "critical value of chi square = 5.99 at 0.05 and 9.21 at 0.01 level of significance. The data analysis further shows that there is difference in perception and angle of the news stories published in Dawn and Jang regarding issue of unemployment. The table displays that Dawn has given 67.0%reporting that is favorable to government and Jang has given 67.8%. Both Dawn and Jang has given equal representation to unemployment. Table. 5
Table-5: Slant of the News Items Printed in Daily Dawn and Jang on Unemployment Newspapers Favorable Unfavorabl Neutral Total
(%) e (%) (%) df X2 p
Daily Dawn 189 (67.0) 61(21.6) 32(11.3) 282
Daily Jang 187(67.8) 60(21.7) 29( 10.5) 276 2 0.1
Total 376 121 61 558
Framing of Socio-legal Issue: Unemployment
The study computes chi-square value 0.06 that is less than "critical value of chi square i.e. 3.84 at 0.05 level of significance. The framing of the issue of unemployment has found that Dawn has published 61.54% news "anti-government" and Jang has published 58.82%. Overall both newspapers have been opposite to the approach of government in the reporting of unemployment. Table. 6 Table-6: Framing of the News Items in Daily Dawn and Jang News on Unemployment
Newspapers Friend / Pro Foe/Anti- Total df X2 p
Govt. (%) Govt. (%)
Daily Dawn 15 (38.46) 24 (61.54) 39
Daily Jang 21 (41.18) 30(58.82) 51 1 0.06 ns.
Total 36(100) 54 (100) 90
Outcomes from Survey Research
The quantitative analysis of the survey is as followed:-
The results examine that 45 percent (highest) respondents were readers of Daily Jang (Urdu Newspaper) while 43.7 percent among the respondents were the readers of Daily Dawn (English Newspaper). 7.3 percent of the respondents were the readers of both while only 4 percent respondents have replied in favor of other media.
I
Hypotheses Testing
This section dealt with the notion that whether the media agenda became the public agenda. Computed variables of the respondents with respect to their priorities of the issues were operationalized as:
DJU. This computation includes the readers of Daily Jang who prioritized the issue of unemployment at 1st and discussed with their colleagues and friends. The computation ranges from 1-30 as the six indicators were merged into one.
DDU. This computation includes the readers of Daily Dawn who prioritized the issue of unemployment at 1st and discussed with their colleagues and friends. The computation ranges from 1-30 as the six indicators were merged into one. Table-7: Regression Analysis between Daily Jang' Readership with Priority on Unemployment and
their Discussions
Coefficients3
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 13.169 .436 30.204 .000
DJU .956 .29 .22 3.29 .000
a. Dependent Variable: Discussion The results analyzed that the calculated value did not fall in the critical region as t=3.29> 1.96, 6 = 0.22. The results indicated that the 22% of the variation in discussion on unemployment with the friends and colleagues is explained by the readership of Daily Jang. The results supported H1. Table-8: Regression Analysis between Daily Dawn' Readership with Priority on Unemployment and
their Discussions
Coefficients3
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 15.432 .509 30.318 .000
DDU .625 .15 .26 4.16 .000
a. Dependent Variable: Discussion The results analyzed that the calculated value did not fall in the critical region as t=4.16> 1.9 6, 6 = 0.26. The results indicated that the 26% of the variation in discussion on unemployment with the friends and colleagues is explained by the readership of Daily Dawn. The results supported H2.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The outcomes of study examined the confirmation that press/media has helped to make or form outlines of issues in the minds of general public. The results of this study supported the outcomes of Harbert (2010) and Sadaf (2011). To pursue the main theme, the researcher assessed the agenda setting and framing role of Dawn and Jang newspapers in shaping the public opinion about the dominant social issues. Media is the most influential tool in all the societies, all the issues are openly covered now in print as well as electronic media at national and international level. The results also support the study of Riaz (2009) that highlighted the importance of the print media in agenda setting process. The result of demographic revealed that greater portion of respondents were post-graduation level qualification and having an ability to understand about the issues of the country. Majorly of the respondent were female which shows the interest of the female in reading newspapers. The readers of the newspapers perceive that the weak political system is the major reason behind the issue of unemployment in Pakistan. Urdu press gave more importance to the political issues while the English press not. The study reveals that the Urdu and English press in Pakistan have different agenda. The hypothetical results highlight the importance of print media in shaping public opinion as found significant with all the social issues.
CONCLUSION
The Pakistani English and Urdu press is considered as the most popular, credible and responsible member of mass media. People rely on both for their depth understanding of different current issues with the help of the news contents. It has become a phenomenon that media sets an agenda and the readers become align to the angles as portrayed. All the readers of print media are affected rather than their difference in age and education. The importance is given to those issues which are highlighted in the print media and in result; the media has sabotaged the importance of the opinions of its readers. Newspaper coverage of each of the issues is very similar. There does appear to be a media agenda that both newspapers follow and promote. This is different from what Riaz (2009) reports. Dawn and Jang had rather different agendas. The media agenda appears to be similar to the public agenda as evidenced by the survey data on the perceived importance of the
issues. Overall, people seem to be satisfied with coverage given to the issues. If the public agenda was radically different, they should be more critical of coverage. Nevertheless, there does appear to be a significant minority of readers 10% to 20% who are dissatisfied. The survey shows rather strong interest in/readership of newspaper coverage of all the issues. This differs from what Riaz (2009) reported. Most people consistently depend most on newspapers for news about each of the issues. Newspapers clearly are the dominant medium for this sample of readers. Riaz (2009) does show a similar level of reliance on newspapers for most issues. The sample is rather evenly divided in its support for US policies on terrorism. Jang readers appear to be no more opposed to US policies even though Jang news coverage tilts against US policies. These are also the major differences with the findings reported by Riaz (2009). Recommendations
The following are the recommendations on the basis of the conclusions. The results give indication to the policy makers of the two dailies that they should highlight the issues of public importance rather than setting an agenda for them. The readers of the newspapers seek credibility to the published contents. Therefore, the policy makers of the newspapers should try not to create dissatisfaction among its readers. The results are inclined to the phenomenon which highlights the real social issues. The policy makers are recommended to give importance to this issue according to the situation without creating sensationalize as well as prejudicing. The policy makers of newspapers are recommended to make such policies where the readers could get some justified understanding and solution as well. Furthermore, print media should be utilized to agenda towards the ultimate reality of the issues without contradiction with public needs. The policy makers of the newspapers in Pakistan should not try to create frustration among its readers. Itis recommended that the newspapers should give importance to the public opinion for seeking development in the country.
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